经济学人双语精读：三星应警惕英特尔那种自满

2024年9月18日 文摘

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Schumpeter
熊彼特

Samsung should be wary of Intel-like complacency
三星应警惕英特尔那种自满

It is too cosy at the top of the memory-chip market
稳坐存储芯片市场的顶端太过安逸了

  • wary 主要指对待某人或某事物时警惕且谨慎，因为对其了解不多而怀疑其很危险或者会引发问题、困难等，以便能够机智地躲避开来（参见：小词详解 | wary）
  • complacency 常作贬义词表示“自满、自得、自鸣得意”

There is a good tale about Samsung’s entry into the silicon-chip business, which at the time—1983—was dominated by Japanese and American manufacturers. Lee Byung-chul, the founder of the South Korean chaebol, announced the new strategy in what he grandiloquently called the Tokyo Declaration. He said that though his country lacked raw materials such as oil, it had an educated and diligent workforce that was well equipped to turn its hand to chipmaking. As Geoffrey Cain recounts in his book, “Samsung Rising”, shortly afterwards some Samsung executives were sent on an overnight march across the mountains from Seoul to toughen them up for the challenge. They arrived at Samsung’s first semiconductor factory, built in a record six months, and signed a pledge before breakfast to make the business a success. Then, without sleeping, they put in a 16-hour work day.
三星进军芯片业的背后有一个精彩故事。那是在1983年，当时该行业还被日本和美国的制造商主导。这家韩国财阀的创始人李秉喆宣布了新战略，浮夸地命名为《东京宣言》。他说，韩国虽缺乏石油等原材料，却拥有受过良好教育和工作勤奋的劳动力，有充分条件转向芯片制造。杰弗里·凯恩（Geoffrey Cain）在《三星崛起》（Samsung Rising）一书中描述道，不久之后，一些三星高管被要求连夜从首尔出发翻山越岭，以坚定其意志迎接挑战。他们到达了三星只用了创纪录的六个月时间就建成的第一家半导体工厂，并在早餐前立下军令状，保证取得成功。然后，他们顾不上睡觉，连续工作了16小时。

  • chaebol 韩国财阀；（韩）集团公司，韩国大企业
  • toughen (sth/sb) (up) （使）坚硬，坚固；加强，强化（法律、规定等）；使更坚强；使坚韧

Call it true grit or call it Samsung’s martial-style work ethic. One way or another the company force-marched its way past the competition to dominate the global market for memory chips. For more than 30 years, it has been the world leader in dram, used for memory storage in computers and servers, and for more than 20 in nand flash memory, used in mobile phones. Yet since 2021, memory chips have been at the forefront of a boom-bust cycle in the semiconductor industry, which started with shortages, was followed by a surge in capital spending and has now become the worst slump at least since the global financial crisis of 2007-09. Samsung Electronics, which includes the conglomerate’s semiconductor, display and consumer-device units, is feeling the pain. On April 7th, while projecting a meagre first-quarter profit, it said it would cut memory-chip production. This is an attempt to help reduce oversaturation in the market.
可以称之为真正的毅力，也可以称之为三星的军事化工作理念。无论如何，这家公司在竞争中异军突起，主导了全球存储芯片市场。30多年来，在用于计算机和服务器内存的DRAM领域，它一直是全球领导者，在用于手机的NAND闪存领域也保持了20多年的领先。然而，自2021年以来，存储芯片一直处于半导体行业一次繁荣-萧条周期的最前沿，这个周期始于供应短缺，继而引发资本支出激增，而现在已进入至少自2007至2009年全球金融危机以来最严重的萧条。三星电子（包括三星集团旗下的半导体、显示器和消费电子部门）眼下正承受冲击。4月7日，该公司预报一季度利润微薄，表示将削减内存芯片产量。此举是为了缓解市场的过度饱和。

In the memory-chip business, Samsung’s lead has long been unassailable. Through regular market downturns, it has always been “the last man standing”, says Malcolm Penn of Future Horizons, an industry forecaster. Its size, with revenues last year of $240bn, gives it the economies of scale to ride out price declines for longer than its competitors. Its smartphone business, though not growing as fast as it once did, produces reliable cashflows to help it invest through the troughs of the chip cycle. When others struggled, it gobbled up their market share. That helped whittle down its large competitors from almost a dozen in the 2000s to only two today—sk Hynix of South Korea and Micron of America. Samsung has a cosy lead, with over 40% of global sales.
长期以来，三星在内存芯片上的领先地位稳如泰山。行业预测机构Future Horizons的马尔科姆·佩恩（Malcolm Penn）表示，在每次市场低迷期它都能“坚持到最后”。三星去年的营收达到2400亿美元，这样的体量带来的规模经济让它能够比竞争对手承受更长时间的价格下行。它的智能手机业务虽然增速不如从前，但仍带来可靠的现金流，帮助它在芯片周期的低谷继续投资。当其他公司挣扎之时，三星顺势夺走它们的市场份额。因此，其大型竞争对手已经从2000年代的十来家减少到如今的仅有两家——韩国的SK海力士（SK Hynix）和美国的美光（Micron）。三星占全球销量超过40%，遥遥领先。